Understanding the role of blood pressure, vascular autoregulation in ageing and glaucoma

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This project will improve our understanding of the relationship between ocular autoregulation and function in aging eyes. We will determine if impaired autoregulation is the nexus by which aging predisposes to neurodegeneration. By understanding how ageing affects autoregulation we can identify novel targets to protect from age-related vulnerabilities to neurodegenerative disease. The validation of our novel non-invasive imaging technology will lead to improved tools for the detection of eyes at risk of neurodegenerative disease.

Figure: A schematic of the central retinal artery under normal conditions (A) and following changes of thickening, narrowing and impaired reactivity in chronic hypertension (B). These structural changes will compromise blood flow autoregulation and lead to partial ocular ischemia. The insets show the experimental evidence for increased wall-to-lumen ratio of the ophthalmic artery in rats with chronic high blood pressure.